The International break is over and Premier League action returns with some tasteful match-ups. However none intrigues me more than Arsenal‘s trip to Newcastle.

St James’ Park is usually a banana pill for most big sides, where points are too frequently dropped or completely lost.

Unfortunately for Unai Emery and the Gunners, this is a game the Arsenal faithful expect maximum points from, regardless of stats and recent history.

Most notable is the memory of the 4-4 draw with Abou Diaby and “what’s his face” Barton, but let’s not dwell.

With the current crop of players at Emery’s disposal, the style that he seeks to instill and the ever present nail biting defensive frailties, exposed so far this season, I reckon this game will require the Londoners to outscore Rafa Benitez’s Magpies by a big margin, in order to safely walk away with all 3 points.

Make no mistake, having failed to register a win so far this season, Newcastle will adopt a similar strategy as Cardiff City did just before the break. It also goes without saying that should they succeed in forcing errors out of our error prone Arsenal defense, the consequences will be way dire than the aforementioned.

Players like Lucas Torreira, Aaron Ramsey, Hector Bellerin and of course Mesut Özil, need to be tuned in and locked on from kickoff.

There is no doubt that Arsenal’s overall play will be more impressive than already seen this season but lack of precise cohesion will leave spaces to exploit for Newcastle.

On the other hand, the super pairing of Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is a necessity in this particular game, as Benitez’s men themselves have a porous backline to exploit, which these 2 need no invitation to take full advantage of.

There will be goals in this match for sure and frankly speaking, the possibility of the Emirates outfit keeping a clean sheet for the first time this season is highly unlikely.

Torreira has apparently shaken off the tight calf concern from the break, based on the official training pictures released by the club.

Another tasty fixture which coincidentally will be opening the games this week is the Tottenham vs Liverpool game. Certainly looking forward to the weekend. COYG!